Did you hear the one about the blonde golfer?

A few months ago, when I told Scott that I had never been golfing or to the driving range, he promised to take me as soon as I got back from a few of my Totally Awesome Vacations. There is a small executive course in DC not far from the Tidal Basin and Jefferson Memorial. Close and cheap, it's perfect for slow beginners like me and golf nerds executives who need a fix have a business meeting during lunch.

We went to the driving range last fall one night after work. It was FUN. Scott was a great, patient teacher and IMHO, he was pretty awesome at smacking the crap out of the balls. And based on my amateur status, that allows him to tell me what to do. I really like hitting stuff really hard. When I hit it...I am terrible. Really, really bad. More often than not, I would accidentally knock the ball off the platform and it would pathetically fall over the ledge to the lower level. I am sure the dude below loved it.

I wanted to go again, but then came winter. Then I fell down. And then snow. And snow. And snow. Now it's sunny! YIPPEE! This week, Scott forwarded an email from a really nice golf club about 45 minutes away saying that they were having free women's classes today, so I borrowed some of his clubs and went.

It was great. It was about two hours and was super informative. The teacher, John O'Leary was nice and his teaching was practical. There were about 30 beginners, so we divided into three stations and learned posture/grip, chipping and pitching. I get the chipping and pitching and could at least get the motion down, even though my aim is still totally out of control. And John said I had a good, consistent grip.

HOWEVER, they had a swing analysis with this camera and computer program, but I don't think they knew what to do with me. My posture is TERRIBLE. One coach said I need to flatten my back and another (Butch - I have never met anyone named Butch), said that I need to stick my butt out (we're not going there.) My shoulders and arms are stiff and I can't get my left arm to do what it's supposed to do, so it stops about 3/4 of the way through. Well, and then there's the boobs in the way... Also, I stand up when I try to hit the ball, which is why I often miss it all together. Finally, I am fairly certain I keep my eyes closed during the whole swing. It's a mess. I have a lot of work to do if I am going to make an effort to pick this up as a hobby. But even with all that, I am (so far) better at golf than at bowling.

So I have signed up for a 6 week women's class at the course in DC after work. It should help a lot and I am looking forward to spending more time outside in the lovely lovely spring, that's just around the corner.